Company Profile

Galetech Energy Developments Ltd is an Irish multi-disciplinary renewable energy consultancy and services provider. They provide development support, technical advisory, project management & engineering services from project feasibility through to construction and operation.

Problem to Be Solved

Yaw error detection and quantification is a major issue in operational windfarms with potential losses from mis-aligned anemometers causing thousands of euro worth of energy to be missed each year. An error of only a few degrees off the true wind direction can increase energy losses and mechanical stresses. The error is difficult to detect and Galetech wish to develop the technique of offering yaw error detection as a service to the Irish wind industry to complement existing technical and project management offerings.

Solution Delivered by Gateway

CREDIT Technology Gateway staff supplied a tower mounted Epsiline Wind Eagle Nacelle Mounted LiDAR instrument which can measure wind in front of the rotor disc and has inbuilt GPS compass and data logging. CREDIT TG also provided wind energy analysis expertise to analyse this data in comparison to the turbine’s own logged data and also a reference wind measurement device.

Galetech Energy Developments wind turbine yaw angle detection project

Impact on the Company

Galetech are able to determine the impact of yaw angle misalignment on the turbine performance over a defined period and are able to assess the extent of the yaw error and its bearing on the power curve.

"The work in this report is excellent with much in-depth detail. We will definitely use the methodology outlined in the report when carrying out further analysis."

— Cormac McPhillips, Technical Services Manager